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11/14/2012

The 112th Congress, By the Numbers

The 112th Congress will return to Capitol Hill this week for a high stakes lame duck session. It is possible Congress will pass more legislation before the Congress adjourns sine die but even with additional legislative days it is unlikely Congress will add significantly to its extraordinarily low bill passage count. To date, the 112th Congress has passed and the President has signed 196 bills. The merits of high rates of enacted legislation are debatable, but the difference between this Congress and the nineteen prior is striking. The list below shows the most recent ten Congresses with the number of public laws enacted during each.